Amber Rudd has issued a blistering rebuke to police chiefs, telling them they must focus on “cutting crime,” rather than “lobbying the Government for money”.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd addressed the National Police Chiefs and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners Conference in London yesterday.

Credit:

PA

Speaking at the annual conference of police chiefs and crime commissioners yesterday, the Home Secretary warned that increases in crime should not see them simply “reaching for a pen to write a press release asking for more money.”

The slapdown follows calls from a number of senior policing figures, including Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, to halt further budget cuts following years of austerity.

Ms Rudd said: “Of course, part of being a police and crime commissioner is about speaking to the government about resourcing.

“But it mustn’t just be about lobbying the government for money. It needs to be about cutting crime, delivering on the priorities you were elected on and being held to account by local people in your area when you don’t.

“So when crime stats go up, I don’t just want to see you reaching for a pen to write a press release asking for more money from the government.

“I want you to tell your local communities and the victims in your area what your plan is to make them safer.”

Ms Rudd also told the summit in London that £1.6 billion held by forces in cash reserves could be used to secure “greater efficiencies”.

The intervention comes after warnings from Ms Dick over the latest round of funding cuts to policing budgets.

She said it would be “incredibly demanding” for the Met Police to find £400m in annual savings on top of the £600m a year of cuts it had already implemented.

Speaking to reporters, Ms Dick added: “I find it incredible to think that anybody would think that over the next four or five years we should lose that much extra out of our budget.”

Contributions from readers

graham669

09:38 on 2nd November 2017

Typical tory ministerial logic, from a typical charlatan tory minister.
Ignore the fact that there are 30,000 less police officers, and billions less in financial resources, just reduce the crime levels without any further resources.
Simple, this idiot home secretary thinks, you cannot keep cutting resources and expect better results. She obviously has no clue how policing is managed.
Or is this part of the drive to replace police officers with underpaid G4s security people, who are not qualified, and don't have the necessary skills, but they are cheaper.
Normal tory stupidity, thinking that the private sector can do a better job cheaper, while using public funds to line the pockets of shareholders.
This government has to go before the country is an even bigger laughing stock around the world!